It was last winter when I first heard Heron’s 1970 self titled debut and the only thing I knew about the record was that it was recorded outside in England near the Thames river. After spending a few days with the album, I began to get the itch to figure out who the dudes were that were responsible for these perfect pastoral folk sing alongs. Who was this band that managed to record an album that sounded like an open field could suddenly play a guitar and sing?
There’s not too much written about Heron and after a few minutes of coming up empty handed, I decided that maybe I didn’t want to know. The record was recorded outside, yes, and you hear all the birds and sunshine that surrounded the band while they effortlessly sang about harlequins and yellow roses. It’s Simon and Garfunkel if instead of being Jews from Queens, they were British guys born and raised in the England countryside. Heron is not so much a lesson in recording or a lesson in songwriting, it’s a lesson in what an album can be. There’s not much on the record other than guitar, piano, and vocals, and it sounds like a well rehearsed day of sitting outside and watching the sun go by. At the end of “Car Crash” a band member laughs as he quietly whispers, “little black things are crawling all over me.”
Heron is strawberry pie and gooseberry puddin. That’s about all you need to know. I swear. words/jeff thrope
Download:
MP3: Heron :: Yellow Roses
MP3: Heron :: Sally Goodin
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Amazon: Heron :: Upon Reflection: The Dawn Anthology [IMPORT]
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Fantastic stuff. I’ve never been able to get enough of “The Big A.”
1 | A. Scott August 11th, 2008 at 8:00 pm[…] det brittiska bandet Heron och har lagt upp deras bästa låt, Yellow Roses, för konsumtion. [Aquarium Drunkard] — Mattias […]
2 | Vi uppmanar Sam Jackson att gömma sig i en bunker — Sammandragningen — Popponny! August 12th, 2008 at 4:58 amIs that Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band / Bad Reputation?
3 | J from Wpg August 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pmThanks so much for sharing this. Upon hearing ‘Yellow Roses’ I went scouring Toronto for some of Heron’s albums. Great stuff — thanks for sharing this!
4 | Jon August 25th, 2008 at 2:19 pmhttp://www.relaxx.co.uk/heron.htm
just found your site. awesome stuff, especially the victor håkansson interview. keep up the good work.
5 | stuart October 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 am